How the Velocity Washer Supports Canada's Defence Industrial Strategy — Starting with Naval Maintenance
Canada's naval maintenance pipeline is under pressure. The Velocity Washer is built to help prime contractors meet it.
Canada's Defence Industrial Strategy and the National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS) have set an ambitious course: renew the Royal Canadian Navy's fleet, raise ship serviceability rates to 75%, and ensure that the industrial base supporting those ships is sovereign, capable, and efficient. For the defence primes and shipyards executing that vision, such as Irving Shipbuilding, Seaspan, and their tier-one supply chains, the pressure to reduce maintenance cycle times and keep vessels operationally available has never been higher.
One of the most underestimated sources of delay in naval maintenance isn't complex systems integration or supply chain disruption. It's fasteners.
Velocity Washer installed on a Canadian Coast Guard vessel
The Hidden Cost of Fastener Failure in Naval Docking Work Periods
Docking Work Periods (DWPs) are scheduled, costly, and politically visible. Every day a Halifax-class frigate or an Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship spends in a graving dock is a day it isn't operationally available. Across the RCN's in-service support contracts, DWP duration and cost are primary KPIs - and fastener seizure is a chronic contributor to schedule overruns.
The problem is well understood by anyone who has worked in marine maintenance: seawater intrusion, galvanic corrosion, and extreme temperature cycling cause bolts to seize in their assemblies. When that happens, removal requires grinding, cutting, or drilling - all of which are labour-intensive, damage surrounding components, and introduce downstream rework. A seized fastener that should take minutes to remove can consume hours of skilled trade time. Multiplied across hundreds of access points on a vessel, the impact on DWP duration is significant.
Labour hours lost to fastener removal don't appear as a line item in most maintenance budgets - they're absorbed into task overruns, scope creep, and schedule extensions. But they're real, they're recurring, and they're preventable.
Velocity Washer is a drop-in solution for a standard hardened washer. Just turn the nut (as usual) and eliminate galling.
What the Velocity Washer Does
The Velocity Washer is a patented anti-galling washer designed to solve this problem at the source. Installed under bolt heads and nuts in bolted connections exposed to harsh environments, the Velocity Washer maintains clamp load integrity while preventing the metal bonding that causes seizure during disassembly.
Field-tested across industrial marine environments, the Velocity Washer has demonstrated consistent performance in conditions that mirror the demands of naval maintenance: saltwater exposure, thermal cycling, high-vibration assemblies, and mixed-metal connections prone to galvanic activity.
The benefits for in-service support contractors are direct and measurable:
Reduced DWP duration: Fasteners come apart as intended, on schedule, without improvised removal methods.
Lower labour hours per maintenance task: Skilled trades spend time on value-added work, not bolt extraction.
Reduced component damage: Eliminating destructive removal protects surrounding structure and reduces unplanned rework.
Improved ship availability: Faster, more predictable maintenance cycles mean vessels return to operational status sooner.
Velocity Bolting Founder, Ryder Britton, with Minister of National Defence, David McGuinty
Alignment with Canada's Defence Industrial Strategy
Canada's Defence Industrial Strategy explicitly targets Canadian-made solutions that strengthen domestic industrial capability and reduce lifecycle costs for DND platforms. The strategy's goal of raising RCN fleet serviceability to 75% isn't achievable through new builds alone - it requires smarter, faster, and more reliable in-service support across the existing fleet.
The Velocity Washer is a Canadian technology, developed and manufactured in Canada, directly addressing a maintenance inefficiency that affects every vessel in the fleet. It doesn't require new processes, specialized tools, or retraining - it integrates into existing bolting procedures and delivers results from the first maintenance cycle.
For prime contractors holding In-Service Support contracts - and for the shipyards competing on upcoming NSS maintenance packages - the Velocity Washer represents a tangible improvement to maintenance productivity that supports cost-per-vessel-day metrics and schedule compliance commitments.
Proven in Marine Environments
The Velocity Washer isn't a concept. It has been evaluated and adopted in demanding marine industrial settings, including relationships with the Canadian Coast Guard and the US Navy. This field-validated performance record gives procurement teams and maintenance engineers confidence that the technology delivers on its promise in real operating conditions - not just in laboratory testing.
In addition to this real-world testing, Velocity Washer has undergone extensive independent vibration, shock, and corrosion resistance testing and certification. This includes MIL-STD-1312-7A, MIL-STD-167-1A, MIL-S-901D, and ASTM B117.
Velocity Washer specimens during 1,000-hour neutral salt spray exposure in the ASTM B117 corrosion chamber.
As Canada's shipbuilding and maintenance industrial base scales up to meet NSS commitments, suppliers who can demonstrate proven, field-tested solutions that reduce operational lifecycle costs will have a meaningful advantage in the bid environment.
Ready to Reduce Your Maintenance Cycle Times?
If you're a prime contractor, shipyard, or in-service support provider working within Canada's naval maintenance ecosystem, we'd welcome the opportunity to walk you through how the Velocity Washer integrates into your maintenance program - and what the labour hour and schedule impact could look like across your fleet.
Book a consultation with the Velocity Bolting team →
Velocity Bolting Inc. is a Vancouver-based fastening technology company with patented solutions deployed across industrial and defence-adjacent marine environments in Canada and internationally.
